Chapter 753 - Public Enemy #1
Chapter 753: Public Enemy #1
I was likely already blacklisted by all kings, nobles, and tribe leaders since I would only bring them bad news and prophecies about disaster every time I spoke up.
Anyone who tried to counter my words or scorned me would always be proven by time and reality that they were the foolish ones.
My Holy War prophecy, my Undead Calamity prophecy, my prophecy about the elves meeting the first demon wave... Well, perhaps it was rather strange to describe what I said as prophecies as I had simply analyzed the information I had and notified others so that they could make earlier preparations.
But sometimes, people would really hate to hear the truth. There were people who would angrily reject others’ words, but this wasn’t always because of their own personal opinion. Sometimes, it would simply be due to loathing the person who spoke, or because the “prophecy” had shattered their own expectations or affected their benefits.
Thus, the majority of real prophets would only be able to choose between the gallows or being burned on a cross.
Although it was likely that people would regret they hadn’t listened to the prophet afterwards, and people might even make someone take responsibility for killing the prophet, what meaning would there be in it since the prophet was dead already and the calamity had come true?
Actually, being able to give a warning by providing information beforehand was already the limit of what I could do as an individual. I felt that I was doing quite good already. I couldn’t be expected to fight to the end against nation-level or world-level calamities by myself.
Gathering information and planting seeds was my normal way of doing things. I would publicize information when it was necessary. I would also scam or fool others into doing what I wanted. That was also normal.
In a way, I was quite lucky.
Although my reputation was quite terrible since I was Emperor Yongye, a prophecy from a famous villain would still have more weight to it than a prophecy from someone unknown.
I had given many prophecies in the past, always about misfortune. At first, people had laughed at me in disbelief. Afterwards, they only half doubted. Now, I was referred to as a “damned jinxer”, and people would say “let’s hear who’s the unlucky one this time”.
My hard work hadn’t gone to waste. Maybe my information support didn’t seem very important to others, but only I knew just how much had already changed as I knew the game’s history.
My warning about the Holy War and the Chaos Abyss had managed to prevent the human kingdoms from acting against each other. The game’s history had a catastrophic human internal war that never occurred here.
Due to my guidance as well as coincidence, the Underground’s invasion had never occurred, either. The entire Order Faction didn’t suffer severe losses before the Holy War even started. This was a much better situation than in the game’s history.
And as the Holy War progressed, more and more powerful enemies appeared, making the future seem murky. The leaders of various countries all remembered my previous prophecies.
Maybe the countries’ leaders really disliked me, but at least they would listen to what I had to say.
Bardi, the Mist Alliance, Auland, the wood spirits, and the Mage Country. All the leaders of these major countries and factions would give their recognition to the veracity of my prophecy. This would make Karwenz and his allies into public enemy #1 for the entire world.
Benefits would cause war. War was also for the sake of benefits. But, what benefits could possibly be gained from joining Karwenz’s side? freℯ𝓌e𝚋𝐧𝘰vℯl.𝐜𝚘𝗺
Karwenz wanted to shatter the dimensional barrier. That would make the sealed off Eich universe’s Cycle of Reincarnation and Holy War completely meaningless. The future for every single living being would become uncertain. Maybe this sounded nice, but it was well known that Eich had almost been destroyed by dimensional invaders from other universes at the beginning of Eich’s history. Stories and fairy tales of such things still persisted even today. While such stories didn’t mention what existed out there in other universes, they all mentioned the highly dangerous dimensional invaders who would try to destroy the world.
Logic and knowledge were the most basic weapons of any mage. The mages found no meaning in even trying to play devil’s advocate to support destroying the dimensional barrier.
It was easy enough to hypothesize what was waiting for us in other universes.
The most likely answer was that things were the same as Eich’s immemorial generation, that ravenous existences were waiting to feast on this world.
In that case, the entire mortal plane would suffer a tremendous calamity. As long as people managed to survive, Eich’s natural cycle due to being sealed off would be shattered, and Eich’s dimensions would become connected to the countless other dimensions and universes out there. This would be a good thing for the world of Eich. The sealed path of evolution would become reactivated, while science, magic, and civilization would all develop at an explosive rate.
If people didn’t manage to survive... well, it would likely be similar to Chaos Abyss levels which were dominated by demons. There would probably still be some survivors regardless, but what would the world be like? Would the surviving people be slaves or food? That would all be unknown.
But, no matter if Eich survived or not, ordinary humans who had no powers would likely suffer the most losses of all. Shattering the dimensional barrier would result in a natural cycle where the strong preyed on the weak. The most obvious result was that weak humans would be eliminated. I had no idea how many people would die, but those who died in the largest numbers would definitely be those who had no power and status to protect themselves.
Of course, it was also possible that the other universes’ ravenous existences had already left, and that there was nothing waiting beyond the dimensional barrier at all. That would mean that Karwenz had wasted his time and effort in trying to shatter the dimensional barrier.
The dimensional barrier had been created by the combined power of the Goddesses of Order and Chaos. Theoretically speaking, no living being from Eich should have possibly been able to exit the Eich universe... Don’t ask me how Beifeng managed to leave, as he had already accomplished countless unimaginable things already.
Still, my unreliable System informed me that she had created the dimensional barrier primarily to defend from outside threats, so leaving was highly difficult yet still possible, but reentry would be absolutely impossible.
If Karwenz had had any information at all regarding what was outside the dimensional barrier, he likely would have shown it to me already in an effort to convince me.
Right now, I couldn’t understand what benefits Karwenz’s allies could possibly stand to gain from helping Karwenz achieve his ultimate goal.
That was right, I was only referring to Karwenz’s allies. I could understand Karwenz’s goal and that he had an unwavering will. However, what could he possibly offer to his subordinates and allies?
A ticket to being safe from the world’s destruction? I felt that it was more like a ticket to the world’s destruction.
A higher status or lots of money? Status and money would be meaningless when the entire world might be destroyed.
More power? While that would be meaningful, didn’t most people want more power in order to live a better life? Besides, would power gained from a Chaos Main God really be useful for helping them survive the potential destruction of the world?
If nobody else was alive, what meaning would there be in having power?
I really couldn’t figure out just what Karwenz had promised to his allies. No matter what type of alliance it was, mutual benefits was an absolute. If one ally’s goal was to “kill” everyone, then this alliance would naturally become meaningless.
It could be said that from the moment that Karwenz revealed and announced his goal, he had become the enemy of the entire world.
When his allies had found out about his goal, all of them had already betrayed him. For instance, Sophocles the Deceiver was preparing an elaborate fatal trap for Karwenz.
Karwenz’s subordinates were probably quite shaken as well. Other than complete insanity, I couldn’t think of any reason to continue following Karwenz.
Even though I usually preferred to be vague about my standpoints, in regards to this matter, I had to oppose Karwenz no matter what. It couldn’t be helped even if this would end up with me personally having to kill my blood relative.
“Is it worth it? Karwenz, you’re still going to try and achieve your goal even if the entire world becomes your enemy? Even if you destroy the world?”
By the time that I finished the meeting with the other countries’ leaders, everyone had a dark expression. It seemed like they all understood just how dangerous Karwenz was.
I mentioned that I needed a prophet to help me locate Karwenz, so several powerful members of the Truth Symposium immediately agreed. Not only would they send out the best seers and prophets in teams, they would even use the Mage Country’s stored God Equipment and the Cloud Tower’s mana ocean in order to find Karwenz and unravel his scheme at any cost.
The fairies immediately swore right then and there that for all of tomorrow, next week, and even next month, every single headline of theirs would be filled with this news so that the entire world could learn about Karwenz’s wicked goal.
Halent promised that the dragons would place a great deal of importance on this matter and see it to the end.
Of course, there was something even more practical. The aloof and arrogant powerful individuals from the dragons, mages, wood spirits, elves, and humans all promised me that due to the urgency of the situation, all that was needed was to notify them, and they would attack Karwenz with all their might.
Did this sound like it wasn’t much? This was something completely different from how powerful individuals would typically only make a show of things on the battlefield.
When powerful individuals from two different sides fought each other, there normally wouldn’t be any deaths unless there was a special reason or a large difference between power levels.
Anyone who had lived long enough would become a veteran. They would always hold back as long as the situation wasn’t important. They wouldn’t toss out forbidden spells, and they would only use flashy techniques rather than practical ones. They would retreat when only at half mana or having used up half of their consumables. Nobody would try to hunt each other down, and everyone would simply return home.
The most obvious and shameless example was how the Undead Emperors and Truth Symposium had been fighting each other. Both sides were top-level mages. More than 10 top-level mages had fought against the Undead Emperors for almost half a year already, yet there hadn’t been any deaths at all amongst the top-level individuals. No matter how flashy things seemed to be on the battlefield, not having deaths or combat achievements was already the best explanation of how things really were.
But, Karwenz’s goal getting achieved would mean that there was no longer any future. This gave the top-level individuals a reason to truly go all out. In that case, their power would be uncalculatable.
Originally, I was on the weaker side, but I had now received an incredible amount of support. The originally stronger Karwenz was gradually becoming isolated.
As expected, the Calamity Rankings was updated on the very next morning. Karwenz hadn’t been ranked highly before, as he didn’t have many combat achievements in the mortal plane, but he instantly flew all the way to #1, finally displacing the mega nightmare known as Beifeng who had monopolized the #1 spot for more than half a year.
Still, I was in a bad mood as I carefully looked over the Calamity Rankings.
“Didn’t your ranking go down by one thanks to this? Why aren’t you happy? Could it be that you want to be ranked #1?” Harloys inquired.
However, that wasn’t it...
“Forget about still considering me to be dangerous and not removing me from the Calamity Rankings, and forget about not discussing things with me before giving me new nicknames. Why is it that Karwenz instantly gained a nickname like ‘Chaos Destroyer of Worlds’ while I gain strange new nicknames such as ‘Calamity Prophet of the Night’, ‘Catastrophe Jinxer’, and so on? Why am I getting such embarrassing nicknames?”